Monday, 26 May 2008

Ever since starting my college blog I feel compelled to try and take things further and further. I think blogging is an amazing platform to get your name out there, not only as a way for industry professionals to see your work, but also it seems a great way of building your work into a brand

Blogging has just become something that I love. Recently I have wanted to take my blogging and writing to a more professional level (and use it as a way to earn a bit of extra cash over the summer) Recently I sent off a few e-mails to some technology websites to see if they had any spaces for someone to blog for them.

Here is the e-mail i sent

"I am a student studing for a BA (Hons) Design for Digital Media at Leeds College of Art and Design

If you look at my personal blog you will www.lukeb3000.blogspot.com you will see that it is my university blog but there are also a lot of technology related post.

Technology is something i have had an interest in since being very young.

Growing up I was really into games consoles and was always blown away when the next gen consoles were released.

As i have become older (and now have my own income to spend) my interest in technology has not diminished. As well as buying and reading technology on a regular basis I am also a regular reader of many technology sites such as digg.com, ars technica,the register, reg hardware, infosyncworld and many more.

Since buying both a MacBook and iPod touch last year i have also started listening to both technology video and pod casts on a regular basis.

Friends often consider me to be the technology geek of the group,they are sometimes perplexed by the terms i use and the things i talk about, which is often the latest piece of technology yet to hit the stores.

I have been an avid fan of mobile phone technology since the 90's. My first phone was a Nokia 5110, and have enjoyed watching the industries advances over the years

Since then i have owned a vast array of different handsets many of them Nokia's and Sony Ericssons. All my recent handsets have been smartphones, as being a technology enthusiast i love the extra features they have to offer

Not to jump on the iPhones bandwagon but i think that the touch screen interface is the future and thought this when i owned a Sony Ericsson P900

My current mobile phone is a Nokia N80 I had my eyes firmly on this phone well before Nokia had officially announced it. I decided to get this phone as at the time 3 megapixel was the highest avalible on any mobile phone, i also loved the fact that wi-fi was built right in (i didn't have an ipod touch back then,) so having a mobile device that i could take round the house to browse the internet was a big factor in buying this phone

I am soon due to upgrade and realistically i am considering two phones either;

the LG Viewty for its 5.1 Megapixel cameraflash with Schneider-Kreuznach lens and ability to shoot video at 120 fps and touchscreen interface

or the Nokia N95 for its GPS abilities and 5 megapixel camera.

I am most likely going to opt for the LG viewty as although it crams in less technology my experience of the Nokia N80 was that it needed to be charged everyday, and when a phones battery is dead (which after a long phone call was often the case with the N80) the technology residing inside that phone can no longer be utilized. Also i am mostly a texter and a full screen touch keyboard is a big draw for me i am also able to dispense of needing wifi built into my phone as i now use my ipod touch as my primary mobile internet device

unrealistically i would opt for an iPhone (i cant afford one of these at the moment) or the Nokia N96, simply for the amount of technology packed into it

or my current favorite of my unrealistic wish list would be the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1. This phone looks to be shaping up to be a very nice device for some who likes who is likes technology packed phones. The keypad would be great for me with all the texts i like to send. Although i like to have the best camera possible on my mobile phone of choice i know that the 3.1 megapixels that the Xperia X1 has to offer will be adequate for achieving a presentable picture.

I would also like this phone as my experience with Sony Ericssons has always been positive and i find the user interfaces on their phones to be more, friendly and intuitive to use.

I will no doubt be following what Sony Ericsson do with the Xperia range with avid interest.

You can find out more about what other Digital Media projects i am involved in by visiting http://www.lukebeaumont.co.uk

I hope to hear back from you soon

Regards

Luke Beaumont"

For over a month i did not hear anything back, but just thought to myself, the idea of blogging as a professional is a nice idea and blogging on a topic i like would be amazing, but just thought who is going to employ a uni student, who can not prove they have a track record of being able to post on a regular basis

Today I got a reply from one of the companies I e-mailed offering me a trail blogging for them

See the pictures below

So i am really REALLY happy about being given this opportunity, i'm also really nervous writing for your self is easy, as you can just say what is on your mind, where as with this I have to produce a certain amount of post by a certain time. Im sure once i get into the swing of things i will be fine and hopefully it will fine tune my skills to improve my personal blog posts.

Im also secretly hoping that i can climb the blogging ladder, to the point that I can develop my name into my brand, and people will send me new tech to review, but no doubt that will be in the very distant future, if at all. Its a nice thought and i think its good to have goals.

For a long while now, i have had some hyperlinked text at the top of my page named Link1 Link2 Link3 Link4

I first made them hyper link to various search engines, this was just a way of testing that it was possible to have hyperlink able text at the top of my page

I next went on to make them link to pages of my blog that i have back dated

Today i final decided to full integrate them into my blog by giving them the appropriate titles, however I have come across a problem

THEY ARE NOT SPACED OUT ENOUGH, and therefore are are totally unreadable, thus rendering them useless!

I was at one point using this piece of HTML code & n b s p ; which acts as a tab, however this leave and unsightly line between the words ( i still have it attached to "Link 4" at the top as a demo, go hover your mouse curse over "Link 4" to see what i mean)

I should imagine it is achievable to have these links spaced maybe by the way of using cell spacing or some kind of table

While writing this post I have now discovered the HTML code < p r e> < / p r e > which allows for pre formated text "Link 4" no longer has & n b s p ; attached to it so you can not demo it,

However as you can see now the font has gone wrong

This blog post is a plea for any HTML geniuses to help me out, if you know how have the links at the top spaced out, with ordinary text formating them please drop me a comment on this post

(to see the image above properly click on it, as it has been horrendously squashed to fit on this blog, i promise you it doesn't look that ugly in real life!)

I've been considering picking up a scanner and a printer for some time now and this one was half price. Originally it was supposed to be £80 and it was down to £40. Im not sure how true that is but £40 for a printer scanner combo seemed reasonable enough to me.

I have mainly bought this product for the use of the scanning facility, as I am hoping it will aid me to blog from other sources than websites.

I often find articles in magazines or papers that i find interesting and wish to post on my blog about them. If i need to scan anything i usually do it at college, often it either slips my mind to scan the article and by the time i remember I feel that i am to late to post as it no longer seems relevent.

Hopeful by having a scanner at home i can find some time at the end of the day (when i am back from uni) to scan and post anything I find interesting, hopefully this will help me post on a wider range of topics.

Also I am hoping that having a scanner will encourage me to use my sketchbook a little more to develop my ideas, as i will now have the option to instantly scan things in my sketch book into my blogs

The fact that it has a printer option too is a bonus although I read some reviews about it being a little greedy when using the ink

One final observation (and thing that has annoyed me) it did not come with a printer cable to attach it to my MacBook, so now I have to go out and buy a USB cable before i can even use it :(

Sunday, 18 May 2008

When I started this project, i had intentions of using college HD cameras and booking out a studio, unfortunately I was given notice to quit my current property while doing this project, and finding somewhere else to live took main priority.

This left me with less time than I had originally anticipated to complete the project, meaning I had to work around some of my original intentions.

Capturing video using one of colleges cameras is one things i ran out of time to do. In order to work around this I used my mini dv video camera, hooked it up to my MacBook and used PhotoBooth as the capture program.

Not the most professional way to do things, but under the circumstances it was the only way I could get things done, also goes to show with the right tools and knowledge most things are possible

"The new Service will carry 80 digital TV and radio channels, including free high definition programmes, with that number due to rise to 200 by the end of 2008.

Users will make a one-off payment for a dish, set-top box and installation, but will not pay a monthly subscription.The price of a box will start at £49, rising to £120 for a high-definition (HD) version. The cost of installation, including the satellite dish, will be a further £80."

bbc.co.uk

£200 compared to a normal freeview box (which can be picked up for around £30, such as HERE) seems to be a little expensive, however if you consider what you are actually getting and bearing in mind that by 2009 you will be getting around 200 HD channels it seems a pretty reasonable offer.

If I had £200 laying around spare I would be off to by myself a free sat box